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Notre Dame knocks off UConn in OT thriller

She averaged 1.4 points in 5.7 minutes per game as Saint Joseph's (19-15) reached the Atlantic-10 Conference Tournament final and advanced to the second round of the WNIT.

Player of the game: Ogunbowale made the biggest shot of her life, but Notre Dame would not have been in position to win without a career night by Jackie Young.

A year after being shocked in the Final Four, the UConn Huskies (36-1) were looking for a chance at revenge.

"She's done that all year against the best competition", Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said.

The Irish will face the Bulldogs - who won again in OT earlier Friday - on Sunday night in the title game.

"It's really tough", McGraw said. It was like we were done. This Titanic Hoops never gets old right? Few men's teams in the country worked as hard as Calhoun's. You think this is a game?

UConn was also heavy favorite in last year's tournament, but lost to Mississippi State in one of last year's semifinal games.

"It's all about the mind-set", McGraw said. "We assembled a team of technicians, data scientists and basketball enthusiasts who built a data-processing workflow using Google Cloud Platform technologies like BigQuery and Cloud Datalab", the company explained.

Despite all of those compelling factors, fans aren't tuning in at the rate they did a year ago, at least so far. They know what it's like.

Last year, Mississippi State ended UConn's 111-game game winning streak in the semifinals - also on a last-second shot - before losing to SC in the title game.

If Notre Dame is going to have any chance, it is going to have to play its best game of the year, because UConn comes into the game playing sensational basketball on both ends of the court.

But more than relying on experience to mentally prepare, Mississippi State (37-1) is tapping into their desire for redemption.

"We're very different but we have our own space", Marz said with a smile. At this point in time, everyone's sore. "Those kids are entitled to the kind of success they have, and people should appreciate what they do", he said.

For her part, Ogunbowale had 27 points while playing all 45 minutes, as she and Young dictated the pace of Notre Dame's attack.

Notre Dame is getting the upper hand so far in its women's semifinal game against unbeaten UConn.

Notre Dame AthleticsNotre Dame celebrates defeating UConn to advance to the championship game. Notre Dame (33-3) won its only tournament championship in 2001.

From the beginning, it was clear that the Irish came to play. UConn challenged her to beat them, and she did not shrink from the opportunity, including converting two three-pointers after coming into the game only 9-of-35 (25.7 percent) beyond the arc. Now - much like its record usage in the NBA - it's an indispensable piece of the arsenal for any team with serious hopes of winning the national championship. "I think we changed some things since then".

"We just need to make sure that we're focused enough that yes, we beat U-Conn., but that wasn't the national championship. One weekend in March gets to decide your season".

Mabrey admitted it will be hard to refocus after Friday night's emotional win. "It goes back and forth".